Strategies

Home Is Where the Art Is

by Chloe Veltman

THE CHALLENGE

Theatremakers are perhaps more bound by geography than artists working in such media as film or music, which can often exist independently of a particular community. Theatre companies usually depend upon specific venues, actors’ schedules, regional funding policies and the support of local audiences. The idea that they might call more than one city home seems almost antithetical to the idea of live performance. Yet thanks to organic relationships and performance opportunities that have evolved on two coasts, the Banana, Bag & Bodice (BB&B) theatre collective is intent on maintaining close ties to both New York City and the Bay Area. Meanwhile, True Colors Theatre Company is working to establish itself formally in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York. This arrangement stems from a core vision of theatre as a “moveable feast,” as well as a desire to capitalize on artistic director Kenny Leon’s perambulatory career.

While today’s high-speed telecommunications greatly facilitate the attempt of such feats of pan-American derring-do, there’s no getting around the need for in-person interaction. “The main challenges of being bi-coastal have to do with coordinating development and rehearsal schedules,” says BB&B co-founder and actor Jessica Jelliffe, who established her company with actor/writer Jason Craig in San Francisco in 1999. Craig and Jelliffe moved to New York in 2000, while many of their key collaborators remained in the Bay Area.

Another issue is that many foundations have geographical restrictions, making it difficult for companies with two or more mailing addresses to apply for funds for additional travel and accommodation expenses. Similarly, operating in different cities may hamper an organization’s ability to build a core audience. “We’ve been operating fully here in Atlanta but we need a really good support base in Washington and New York,” says True Colors managing director Wendy Riggs. “The challenge is to make ourselves stable in all three cities.”

THE PLAN

True Colors and BB&B don’t have dedicated performance spaces, freeing them to develop ties around the country. BB&B has mounted numerous shows at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and transferred them to New York. “We want to continue to cultivate both locations equally,” says Craig. Now that the company has outgrown the Fringe, it is developing relationships with larger producers such as New York’s HERE Arts Center and Berkeley’s Shotgun Players (the co-producer of its latest show, Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, which premiered at Shotgun in the summer and will open at New York’s Abrons Arts Center in April ’09).

True Colors’s mission is to set up firm links with venues in New York and Washington and perform in these cities regularly. High costs incurred by recent transfers, such as Cheryl L. West’s Rejoice! (which moved from Atlanta to Washington with the original cast), has prompted True Colors to seek grant-givers interested in serving multiple markets. “Having the right funders is crucial,” says Riggs.

KEY PLAYERS

True Colors is relying on its board, whose members are spread across Atlanta and Washington, to help develop firm bases beyond Atlanta. Meanwhile, Shotgun Players decided to help BB&B produce Beowulf in New York and has invited the company back to stage a new show in Berkeley in 2010 or 2011. As a result of this burgeoning partnership, BB&B hopes to reassemble the original Beowulf artistic team for the New York run, and may end up rehearsing the show in California. “Beowulf has catapulted us to a different level,” says Craig. “Now we need to balance Shotgun’s producing expertise from the West Coast with our own efforts to raise money and awareness about our show on the East Coast.”

WHAT WORKED

True Colors’s success so far owes much to its cautious approach. “We’re testing out our ambitious ideas with smaller-scale projects first,” says Riggs. A “virtual office” also helps True Colors to administrate projects in diverse locations.

While Craig, Jelliffe and their Bay Area collaborators do exchange ideas via e-mail and phone, in-person rehearsals are concentrated and intense. “So much of our creative process happens when we get together,” says Jelliffe. “There’s something to be said for the fast and furious approach to meeting deadlines.”

WHAT DIDN’T

The fact that BB&B’s e-mail list is split between two locales can be confusing. “Audiences sometimes don’t quite know where our shows are taking place,” says Craig. “On the other hand, people get excited about what they’re missing out on and look forward to the show arriving in their city.”
True Colors, meanwhile, hasn’t managed to find stability with far-flung venues. “The steady commitment we want from the theatre in Washington with which we’ve been collaborating hasn’t yet materialized,” says Riggs. “We don’t yet have a regular place to perform in New York.”

WHAT’S NEXT

With August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf currently running in repertory (produced in partnership with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre), True Colors is ramping up its August Wilson Monologue Competition, which it piloted in Atlanta and D.C. over the past couple of years. This year the competition will unfold in Atlanta, New York and Wilson’s hometown of Pittsburgh. The company is also pondering the opening of satellite offices in New York and D.C.

The coming months look equally busy for BB&B. In addition to preparing for the New York run of Beowulf, the company is undertaking a project at HERE and is working on a commission for New York’s Ice Factory, which may travel to San Francisco. “We didn’t set out to be a bi-coastal theatre company,” says Craig. “But we perform in both places because it works.”

Chloe Veltman is an American Theatre Bay Area Commissioning Fund writer and a theatre critic for SF Weekly.

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